Also today, the Currier museum in Manchyeswt5er wi8llo be ho9sting readings of Ekfrastic poetry. Yours truly didn't get in on that, but my friend Ed Pacht and several other local poets wi8ll be there reciting.

August 16Effingham 7pm Writers' Night at Effingham Public Library features poetry and prose by poet, potter and chocolatier Sally Cornwell and (her son) poet, Gabriel Perkins.

Feature followed by Open Mic opportunity for writers /musicians (5 min. limit). Please come and bring your writing or music to share. Light Refreshments, including chocolate! The Library is located at 30 Town House Road in Effingham. Contact: Katie
McCarthy 651-9796;603-569-2541 katiemccarthy.roadrunner.com

Grim stones whose gray lips keep your secret well,
Our hands that touch you touch an ancient terror,
An ancient woe, colossal citadel
Of some fierce faith, some heaven-affronting error.
Rude-built, as if young Titans on this wold
Once played with ponderous blocks a striding giant
Had brought from oversea, till child more bold
Tumbled their temple down with foot defiant.
Upon your fatal altar Redbreast combs
A fluttering plume, and flocks of eager swallows
Dip fearlessly to choose their April homes
Amid your crevices and storm-beat hollows.
Even so in elemental mysteries,
Portentous, vast, august, uncomprehended,
Do we dispose our little lives for ease,
By their unconscious courtesies befriended.